AOL dial-up internet service is coming to an end

Wait, AOL dial-up still exists? Wait, dial-up still exists? Yes, and yes! Although the latter isn’t coming to an end as a whole, it seems AOL has reached its EOL (end of life). See what I did there? Which means customers will have to find a new method of accessing the internet next month.

At least, all three of their customers who have still held out after all of these years. I’m kidding, as clearly they had more than three (maybe?). Maybe it is a small handful of subscribers who haven’t checked their credit card bill in over 20 years. Either way, the company has decided that it is no longer lucrative to offer internet packages to consumers via phone lines and old dial-up modems. The company has decided to move on to better investments.

As of September 30th, 2025, it will be shutting down the service. Which isn’t much of a loss, as dial-up internet, in this age, is practically useless. So, any leftover customers will have to start calling up the high-speed competitors in their area to find what the next best financial deal is, and finally get a taste of modern freedom.

AOL posted a simple support message on its website, letting the world know that it has evaluated its options and has decided to move on. This includes support and availability for its AOL Dialer and AOL Shield browser software.

The company was once one of the leaders in internet access, despite so many bugs and hiccups through its golden years. But eventually, it turned into dust the moment high-speed internet became a thing. It’s like moving from one of the slowest spinning hard drives to one of the fastest NVMe options on the market. There just wasn’t any fair comparison between the two, as the sudden increase in speed (and what used to be “unlimited” access for many providers) trumped dial-up so badly that dial-up’s future quickly saw its end coming then and there. It still took several years for stragglers to switch over, but eventually, the majority of users were enjoying lightning-fast speeds and never looked back.

The blow to the dial-up world was so strong, it even caused the downfall of CompUSA back in the day, which had recently partnered with AOL as a means of drumming up some extra cash for its stores and expansion efforts (or really, an attempt to stay afloat in general). Since CompUSA couldn’t even give AOL away for free to customers who came into the store, it wasn’t long before it was obvious that it couldn’t meet the required numbers of the partnership, and everything fell through. CompUSA closed its doors all around the country and was bought out in 2008 by the parent company of TigerDirect (Systemax Inc.), which rolled what was left into its brand.

It’s a surprise that it took this long for the company to let go of its service. I couldn’t imagine that it had enough customers to justify the infrastructure and maintenance. But then again, I haven’t seen their latest numbers. You never know, we might all find ourselves surprised.

For now, sit back and reminisce about some 90’s nostalgia with the following video, which drops you into the old dial-up sounds. Kick back with your favorite cup of joe and think about some of your favorite memories in those chat rooms and within AOL AIM. Feel free to share any of these great memories in the comment section below.